brass drying question

cr A couple ways I've found that work real well. Used a couple pieces of scrap 1x4 lumber. Made a little 4 sided box about 12 inches x 8 inches. Covered the bottom with some metal bug screen. Place the wet brass in the box and set over a forced air register. Works great in the seasons when the furnace runs. When the furnace doesn't run another handy way is using two pieces of scrap plywood. 1/2 in and 1/4 inch or whatever you have. Mark out a grid of 5 rows one way and 12 rows the other way. Plywood should be about 12-16 inches long by 5-6 inches wide. Drill a small hole at each of the 60 spots your lines cross. Hole should be large enough to allow you to push in a 3 1/2 inch nail. Place 60 nails in the holes and attach the thin piece of plywood to the back of the thicker piece to hold the nails in place. A couple small screws will hold this together. Now take your wet annealed cases and stand them up on a nail (primer end up). Set the board in the sun and your cases are dry in no time. Cases laying down take forever to dry. Stand them up and they dry pretty quick.
No need to move. No need to piss off your soon to be X-roommate.


Good ideas, but just ti be clear, i need to move for this and other reasons.

This reaction was just a symptom of his ####ty attitude. He's a complete hypocrite, and applies nothing evenly. I think he's ####ty with me lately for some reason that he won't come out with but he's made like here more than difficult and stressful.

This morning, my daughter and i literally tip toed out of the house so we didn't see him or talk to him. When I come home and his van is there, i get a sick feeling in my gut. I've even gone so far as to go out for dinner with my kid, just so I know he will likely be downstairs when we back. It's a pathetic way to have to live, especially with a kid. It's time to move on, this is just a catalyst.

On the meantime, I'm gonna dry it on the drier I think, see if I can piss him off a bit there.
 
There is a great deal to be said for living alone. Your roomie is indeed a twit. Lose the paper and use a tin foil oven bottom sheet from a dollar store. Set the oven on warm and put 'em in for 15 minutes(2 hours is way too long.). Ready to load after another 15 minutes cooling time. Don't touch 'em until they have cooled.
 
There is a great deal to be said for living alone. Your roomie is indeed a twit. Lose the paper and use a tin foil oven bottom sheet from a dollar store. Set the oven on warm and put 'em in for 15 minutes(2 hours is way too long.). Ready to load after another 15 minutes cooling time. Don't touch 'em until they have cooled.

The plan was to put them in for two hours based on what Jerry does. Low low temp for a longer time, i think the idea is not to screw up the annealing on the brass. I do know that brass annealing is a function of heat and time, so my concern was that if I did it too hot it might cause issues. Figured longer at a cooler temp would be good.

Either way, this was enough to push me over the edge. I've spent the morning looking for a place. Hell who knows, maybe finding a new place will be the catalyst i need to start sending my resume south of the border! I'd love to move to Montana or Oregon.
 
Did you ever figure out what he found so wrong or dangerous? Any valid reason at least in his mind to go apesh*t?

Likely will find out tonite amen I get home. I know him, and this will result in an hour long talk about how disrespectful I am, followed by my telling him that he far overreacted and if he had a problem it would have been very simple to just talk to me and ask for more info about what I was doing before freaking out. I will then inform him, again, that the oven was set so low (like he saw on the screen) it wouldn't have even burned regular paper, that the brass was washed, on parchment, and on my cookie sheets, and that three alarms and the auto off function on the stove were set, just to ensure it wasn't to be left on longer than fitted. He will respond by saying that he's sorry for over reacting but it was still disrespectful to do something like this in the oven/kitchen. I will ask him how it is different from him letting me use the oven to heat up my head lights so I could modify them, or how it is different from him bringing freshly painted doors into the kitchen to dry (as if his argument is that the kitchen isn't an appropriate place to do this stuff, then it's not appropriate for anyone). He will at first try to make up excuses, then say yea, i guess I see your point. My bad on getting upset, but from now on no one will do anything this in the house. I will agree, apologies issued if required, then within the first week of winter he will be doing something like that in the kitchen again. If i mention it I'm being a ####.

Gone through this before, and i can almost guarantee that is how it will go, unless I decide that it's just to much and that I'm moving out today and I'll just screw it and find somewhere else. If that happens he will be more apologetic, i will end up staying for a bit longer, but this will all happen again in short order.
 
Seems to me your room mate is all about manipulation and control. That gives him power. I'd say he is a sociopath. He gets his jollies out of provoking a reaction from you and everyone else. I'd bet at points in his confrontations with you he pauses, puts on a blank look until you talk then carries on at you. The neutral look and pause is him causing you to react so he knows which button to push next. He studies you then proceeds to provoke you.
Just my opinion that you didn't ask for.
 
Seems to me your room mate is all about manipulation and control. That gives him power. I'd say he is a sociopath. He gets his jollies out of provoking a reaction from you and everyone else. I'd bet at points in his confrontations with you he pauses, puts on a blank look until you talk then carries on at you. The neutral look and pause is him causing you to react so he knows which button to push next. He studies you then proceeds to provoke you.
Just my opinion that you didn't ask for.

Have you been surveilling us?

Lol

So what I said would happen was almost an exact crystal ball prediction. The only thing that was different was that it took him longer to apologize, and he also still didn't think there was any reason for him NOT to be at least somewhat upset.

He said his major problems were two fold. First, he said that I need to ask him if he's ok with me using something for anything other than it's intended purpose. Apparently he thinks I asked to do my head lights in the oven (didn't, at all. He came upstairs and i was doing it, he thought it was pretty cool). The other side was that he seems to think that brass emits toxic fumes when warmed. Don't know where he gets this idea, as metal fever, which is caused by metal fumes bring released from a heated metal, can only come about when metal is heated to the point it actually releases vapors into the air. This apparently happens at or near the melting point, or at least much much higher than any oven can go.tried to explain that to him he told me to look it up and I'll find out I'm wrong (he's lost every single argument like this except one, since I've known him - he's that friend you have who "knows" everything, but who, upon further investigation or by examination by someone who knows the topic in wisdom, ends up generally being either wrong, misinformed, or simply talking out his ass.

We have done this so many times, and he's lost so many beers and so much money and coffees because he challenges me on knowledge. Anyways, it seems like he's bitter about something, and I'm not sure what. But I don't care, I've looked up a number of pages that support brass being harmless at these temperatures. No way that it releases vapors even at the annealing temperature, let alone a drying temp.

Anyways, just wanted to update and let everyone know what the "reason" was, as it made no sense.

I like he food dehydrator idea and that's what I think I'll be getting. No time or energy to fight or argue about stupid crap. Going to try to find a way to get help getting a down payment for a house, so we can just get out and be done. Will rent if i have to, but certainly am opposed to that idea.
 
Go down to your nearest Walmart and buy yourself a cheap slow cooker> Put your brass in there on the lowest setting. I repeat THE LOWEST SETTING. Leave the lid off and have a beer.
I used the oven but the wife gets pissed when I use her fancy oven for reloading projects. I have also put them on cookie sheets and left them in a vehicle on a hot summer day. Works great. The nice thing about our hobby is we can use our imaginations.

Your roommate sounds like a nut-bag and should be replaced. I would advise against shooting with this individual. He's no friend of yours.
 
I did the same thing as you. Just don't fall asleep and have her walk in.Things can get lively pretty quick.
 
I pat to dry in a towel and then onto old cookie sheets in oven and use the convection option for about 20-30 min.
Water is all evaporated and you can use them as soon as they cool. There really isn't a better way that I've found that is easier or better - and I've tried the wife's hair dryer.
If the cookie sheets are clean and not used for any other loading purpose there should be zero issues with contaminants.

Oddly enough, my wife had greater issue with me using her hair dryer than she did the oven....ymmv.
 
I pat to dry in a towel and then onto old cookie sheets in oven and use the convection option for about 20-30 min.
Water is all evaporated and you can use them as soon as they cool. There really isn't a better way that I've found that is easier or better - and I've tried the wife's hair dryer.
If the cookie sheets are clean and not used for any other loading purpose there should be zero issues with contaminants.

Oddly enough, my wife had greater issue with me using her hair dryer than she did the oven....ymmv.

Wash the pans well and use parchment paper when used for food and there should be no problems.
 
Wash the pans well and use parchment paper when used for food and there should be no problems.

I have a few that my wife retired from the kitchen - one I use for spraying lube before it goes in the resizer and one for baking brass.
I would have my nutz chopped if I used good ones...
 
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